Were you hurt? Any other details you remember?

I was at these shows during a year of grad school in Miami. Enough reviews have touched on this show, which was pretty great & definitely had an eerie vibe. I wanted to mention something else.

I just read through these reviews, looking to confirm a specific memory, and am now wondering if osy420's "1st dark star in 5000+ days" might have been misunderstood.

Someone in the back of arena had a sign that read "it's been xxxxxx days since the last south Florida Dark Star", obviously trying to coax the band to play the recently resurrected holy grail. I don't recall the exact number on the sign, only that it was in the thousands, and they crossed it off after the 25th to add another day.

A quick review of some stats reveal that the last south Florida Dark Star was on June 23, 1974, the famed Jai Alai Fronton show.......5,604 days prior to this show, the band's 2000th.

Is this osy420's or anyone else's recollection? Love this site. Peace to all.

WTF for some people responding here.

Wasn't at this show but 89/90 were very good years in GD history. The band was tight and focused. This show proves it. I really don't like later day Dark Stars. Prefer the early ones, but this one doesn't suck.

Here's the full show.

https://archive.org/details/gd1989-10-26.sbd.walker-scotton.miller.83428.sbeok.flac16/gd89-10-26d1t05.flac

I've been really diving head first into the Grateful Dead lately. This is quite an undertaking; one could argue that each major era of the Dead is practically a different band altogether, in their approach to the music and the jams.

The Dead are best experienced by their live shows; free from the length and production related limitations of their studio record, the Dead were truly able to explore and expand their sound with their endless yet never tedious jamming, stretching two minute songs into half hour (or longer) brain movies meant to inspire, terrify, delight, and anger. The Dead ran the gamut.

One of my favorite live periods for the band was 1989. At this point, this particular incarnation of the Dead (the surviving core members plus Brent Mydland, who joined the band as keyboardist in 1979) had been a unit for 10 years, and had grown into an inconceivably tight unit, putting on some of their absolute best shows throughout the year.

There are a few shows that can contend for best of this year - the two RFK shows as well as all three Alpine Valley shows in July, the legendary two nights at the Hampton Coliseum on October 8th and 9th, and the focal point of this entry, their second show at the Miami Arena.
What start off as merely a typically strong 1989 show suddenly veers into maybe the spookiest hour or so of music the Dead have ever played. The first set starts off rather innocuous, with particularly solid renditions of the opening "Foolish Heart" and "Little Red Rooster combo, as well as a mournful "Brown Eyed Women" that gets an extra dose of world-weariness from Jerry's death stained vocals. The first sign that things are going to get interesting come with "Victim or the Crime," a sharp, lurching meditation on the dark side human nature sung by Bob with taut vocals, its edgy lyrics punctuated only by the instrumentations: Brent's piano spikes are something out of a haunted house and Jerry's guitar circles around the music like an angry mob at a witch burning. Heady, heady stuff, dark stuff, but some of the finest music they ever played. The last two minutes of the song is some of the creepiest, nastiest soundscapes the Dead have ever created, relief coming only in the form of a jaunty "Don't Ease Me In."

Set 2 is where things get interesting; while "Estimated Prophet" is not necessarily a dark song, its slow, lurching pace and references to death and fire and all that good stuff always gave it a rather ominous aura. It was a song that the band often took it into some crazy, creative areas during the jams, this version certainly no exception. Brent Mydland's angry "Blow Away" was always one of his stronger contributions, and this version features some of Jerry's best 'late in the game' wailing on the coda, leading beautifully into...well, let me set this one up first.
Up until now, there were hints the Dead were going to take the show in a bit of an edgier direction, perhaps because of Halloween approaching and them not having a show on or closer to the the 31st (it was the last show of the Fall tour). "Victim Or The Crime" kind of set the wheels in motion, but other than that the Dead kept things on a relatively easy going - if not entirely light hearted - keel.

Then comes "Dark Star."
It's often hard for me to write about different versions of "Dark Star"; while almost every version of "Dark Star" (at least up until 1991 or so) is immense in its own way, it's lumbering lengths and different styles, jams and textures become hard to keep track of, so much that they often blend together in memory (at least for me). Hoo boy, not his one. About two and a half weeks earlier, "Dark Star" had been busted out for the first time in five years at the band's second of two nights at the Hampton Coliseum (both shows beautifully captured on the Formerly The Warlocks boxed set), so it was a pretty big deal when this version washed over the crowd. Miami was not only blessed with only the second version of the tour, but arguably the best post-1978 version ever.
The song begins normally (or at least as normally as a "Dark Star" can be described), with the band riffing on the main theme, and Jerry singing the first few couples of verses (though his previously mentioned ragged vocals make the song creepier than usual). At around 8:29, Brent punches in with piercing chime effects, an ominous preview of what's to come. The true eeriness comes around the 16-minute mark, when the second verse comes into play. After this, "Dark Star" truly becomes 'dark.' This is 'River Styx soundtrack' shit right here, not to be handled lightly. It's not a polished version. It isn't as thought out or as tight as 8/27/1972 or 9/21/72 or 10/18/74. It never coalesces into a truly tuneful rendition at any point. And yet, this "Dark Star" totally succeeds as a mood piece, conjuring an almost demonic soundscape, with each member playing their part in its construction. If you've ever seen the movie Event Horizon - about a rip into the space continuum that allows for a rescue ship to be possessed by a demonic force, killing its crew - this version could easily be its soundtrack. (To make matters all the more creepy, that movie has a character named Weir for its leader, a position Bob had acclimated to once Jerry's health really plateaued.)
I have to admit, I would've loved if somehow, by some odd turn of events, this "Dark Star" segued into something "Sugar Magnolia" or (as on Sunshine Daydream), "El Paso," just for the sheer mindfuckery of it all in terms of mood and atmosphere. That said, the band was probably just as overwhelmed as the audience was, leading Bill and Mickey to hold down the fort with the usual "Drums" piece. Things aren't getting done getting really, really fucking weird, though, with "Space" retaining the most frightening elements of "Dark Star." The reviews on the Internet Archive (a.k.a. The Mecca for Dead Collectors) mention how large swaths of the audience - no doubt on some form of a hallucinogen or another) - departed the arena, looks of sheer terror plastered on their faces. It was a dark ride, and some Deadheads just wanted off. The tempo, if not the mood, brightens significantly as "Space" fades into "The Wheel," which is a solid if not top shelf rendition, before leading into one more glimpse of the apocalypse with "All Along the Watchtower." The typically gorgeous "Stella Blue" follows, Jerry singing and playing with all the sensitivity in the world, leading into a raucous "Not Fade Away" that finally gives the crowd much needed relief from the 'arsenic and hellfire' trip they've been on.(edited)
The show ends with a touching "We Bid You Goodnight," a song that serves masters: on the one hand, it's a celebratory farewell as a brother bids his kin a safe journey into the arms of the Lord, complete with close harmonies and handclaps. However, with all the ensuing chaos established by the second half of the show, I often envision "We Bid You Goodnight" sung by those unaware of what had occurred previously, with the rest of the show being some freakish deathbed fever dream by the departing brother.
It is not every day I am this bowled over by the atmosphere of a live concert. With live recordings, I close my eyes and imagine myself in the communal glow of the crowd, which adds warmth, comfort and excitement no matter what I'm listening to. Not this show, by any means. I listen to this show and see myself running for the exits. I've not even been high listening to this show, nor did I need to be: it's a trip without actually having to take one.

Great Dark Star and Space, but a bit short, and the whole set's not that well played.

Hi to reviewer rhedda.

THAT AVERAGE SIZED DEAD HEAD DAMSEL THAT LEAPED INTO THE SMOKEFILLED ABYSS OF THE MIAMI ARENA 'SPACE' - PLUMMETING 40 FEET ONTO THE ABSTRACT BLOBBULAR UNDULATION {the crowd) BELOW...

FELL ON ME AND THE POOR DUDE NEXT TO ME!!!

once in a lifetime experience to say the least.

One of the late-Brent era's most-discussed Dark Stars at a show (in yet another now-demolished arena) that in the following months was discussed on Shakedown Street in heavier tones ("it was really weird"; "they're going really dark these days"; "people just freaked out, man"). It became a popular tape just for the curiosity. As a result, looks like some now ticklist it as the best Dark Star of the late-Brent era or even of the late 80s & the 90s. Does it compare to 3/29/90, 9/20/90, or 3/30/94?

Starting the First Set, Jer stretches Foolish Heart, trying to whip it into shape, and the band warms, making the final couple minutes decent. They get comfortable with the groove on Little Red Rooster and sit on it for 9 minutes. This is the era where Bobby gave some of it to Brent. Brown Eyed may be 89's best.

After that short set, the second set is likewise a bit rough overall. In passing the tapes along, fellow Heads were saying things like "here's Miami, it's that one that was kinda dark and edgy". But this isn't the only late Brent-era show where I recall people saying that - even before the sheets came off Dawk Staw. In retrospect the band was shifting around pretty rapidly between spring '89 and summer '90 and mixing it up some. It's not really that dark to listen to at home but people that were there certainly described that way (as well as several other shows that autumn) and had an experience, so it's not just historical revision. Estimated is epic but draggy and sort of spit out. Jer tries to grab it from Bobby and go but it never does gel and, with plenty of minor notes and ominous synth, starts to set a darker tone. That sort of thing was so contagious, with many people sort of wondering, "what's going on? Or is it just me?". But of course there's nothing going on. It's just that the same thing that allows sweetness and light accommodates other shades, right? It's a law from the universe. Humans can tap the energy but to the universe we're an unimportant blip, so why deign to claim we're the energy masters? Isn't that just hubris? Perhaps it would not have seemed so dark if it had been played better; i.e. a simpler, unmetaphysical conjecture on this show: you can hear band frustration in places. In Blow Away Brent goes all-in but it still doesn't gel (Blow Aways get much better in Spring '90). Granted the SBD has a poor mix here. Given those set openers, it was a perfect idea for Jer to fling out the four opening notes of Dark Star, the single song for which this show seems to be known (and which would also get better in Spring '90, e.g. 3/29/90; and for one of the best of the four 89s check 12/31/89 or 10/9/89). But it's not that it's the best version, it's the mini-Space jam into Drums that went further out than usual and not the Dark Star per se. You can hear the boys just smirking, going, "yup, this is where it was going, so let's just strap in". And where they went we went by default. Faustian sometimes? Perhaps; all part of the bus ride. Parts are pretty good but, at 26 minutes, there are long stretches that are meh. The segue and Drums are hot (how often did you hear Mickey charge the crowd loud enough to be heard on the SBD?). With Space compelling hundreds to leave the venue, what's that tell you? > They failed the test: no graduation certificate. The Wheel is a long time coming, for several minutes at the end of Space. In All Along The Watchtower Bobby slurs the verses like he's eating lunch. Jer almost always did justice to it in the late Brent era but it's Bobby that adds the more-than-usual in the last minute with a dueling weave. It's Brent, however, that makes Stella stand.

1st Set:  B-
2nd Set: C
Overall: 3 Stars

HIGHLIGHTS:
Little Red Rooster
Brown Eyed Women
Dark Star segue into Drums

SOURCES: The are a million sources for this show, like many from this era; lots of archivist enthusiasm and investment. The best overall 1st Set is miller.20614 but because of dropouts you'll want the cribbs.1829 for Foolish, LLR, & Big River and probably the last two because the segue into Dough Knees is oddly abrupt on the Miller. The cribbs titles don't match the content because Uncle and Big River are one track. For Set 2, the best is the miller18664. The tetzeli34587 is the two Miller sets combined. The millers are a little too sweetened with EQ and could use a noise reduction pass in places but the clarity seems a little better overall.
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tthrockm- Are you that guy that used to bum people out by sanctimoniously telling everybody that they were ruining your scene; east coast shows, ca. late 80s?
eric - Actually, humans can't hear 10hz tones. Open E on a bass guitar is 41hz (31 on a 5 string, if strung with a low B). Know what you mean though - Phil does his bombs physically and then watches the crowd react!
bonk - Not sure Little Red Rooster, Dough Knees, Big River and BEW are songs about death and destruction...
spacin007 - said it best

I was there, we opted for the big cage parking lot...the alternative parking was very shady... My car got jacked the next week at the golf course.
The lot was fun, Kerry Scolari and I threw the football,with utter precision. The black halfguy amputee on the mechanics creeper outside the venue was memorable. The show was better than the previous few shows (Charlotte NC)
The arena was Full of rookies. But they all left when the "going got weird".
We just turned PRO.
For memories of 1980's shows this was a top 5 for me.

Anyone in South Florida> Miami >Keys... for Dec 21st 2012 feel free to get in touch for consultation.
note ; Big DTB fest on Virginia Key in early Feb.

No long-winded review here, but I'll just say that this is a five-star set for me, or an "A", or whatever you please. Estimated sets this set on a fabulous course through Brent's blues and followed by about two minutes of "alignment" before that truly fantastic Dark Star - all the reviews below on this creation are spot-on; Mickey already the Beam turned on as the jam ends, so really this thing doesn't really end until the Wheel starts. Everything to close is done exceptionally well.

Just melt into that star...

Excellent show during the late-80's renaissance. Jer's voice is rough, though.

For scary, try the 3/27/85 Playin' In The Band.

First, this is a great show from a very good year and it reminds me of how lucky I was to see some good shows during my years of seeing shows. However, about half of the reviews here remind me of all the idiots who ruined the scene for everyone else. Maybe there is a forum someplace else for people to reminisce about how hard they partyed in the parking lot or about all of the near-misses they had while tripping or all the fantastic revelations that Jerry helped them to have when he was looking down from the stage and talking to them, directly?

I wasn't the same for days after THIS night...

It was more than just sid and good Dead... This show was terrifying. I can remember all my friends asking me if I was "alight" for hours after this show. Truth was, I wasn't...

Over 20 years later, and it might as well have been yesterday. The spirits the band conjured up this night defied definition.

Formless reflections, indeed....

ive had second set for 20 years now. Now reading reviews my feelings were confirmed. it was scary Jerry. at night this was a spooky desolate tape. blow away was awesome, and kinda scary. i thought the best of the dark stars that year, although Meadowlands incredible, but both better than Hampton. Maybe best Stella ever w/Bob's spooky whale sounds. . Good to see my suspicions confirmed. THe dead could skullfuck ya like no other. I remember 88 and the satellite gun references (by crowd). I remember the "no guns 89 tees. But seriously really cool tape to listen to at night, another good night tape 74 frisco Dark Star morning dew

just listening to the show this day in history. dark star unlike anything I've heard. Love charlie miller too. and yes happy birthday to indydarkstar, hope you trip is as great as last years. I'm in btown hit em up.

the best modern-era (post Keith) Dark Star.

but not "the 1st DS in 5000 days" as an earlier poster mentions - check out 10/9/89, 12/31/81 and 7/13/84.

I like the other Charlie Miller board over this one, because it has the first set. The second set is even more intense when you listen to the first set's darkness, it just adds to all this...
I LOVE hearing stories of how scared people were! Oops, wrong day to trip out! Poor bastards! I couldn't imagine how it must of been for them. By the way I totally agree with the previous poster DO NOT TELL DL SECRETS HERE!! these Arista bastards are everywhere listening to everyone, your phone is tapped right now, their spying on us, damn it, this Dark Star is making me feel sick to my stomach...argh

I was at this show,and no the boys werent dosed,tho Jerry was showing a good nod at times.
The second set was great and this was a two night run.When they broke into the Dark Star the place went nuts and u cant imagine where the venue u were because u wondered if your car was gonna be jacked by the time you got outside again.
The place was totally dosed,at least we were and having toured and seen many a dead show this was an impressive one when last Dark Star i saw was in the early 70's........sick ass show.......

brotheresau1, i know there are ways to DL these SBD shows but i don't think it's wise to post instructions out in the open. This could endanger the permanence of this awesome resource for us all. Remember all the uproar when they pulled the boards the first time? You can always contact an individual and give them instructions in a personal email. I don't agree with the policy of "streaming-only SBDs either but i don't want to endanger ahving them pulled completely again.

Wow - there must have been quite a few people at this show who's minds started to go seriously awry during the Dark Star, and I don't think Drums into Space helped either! What an awesome segment, I wish i could download this. And the sound quality kicks ass. Anyone who is a fan of spacy/scary Dead should give this a listen.

Just download the MP3U VBR OPEN BY (DEFAULT IN WINAMP) AFTER EACH SONG CONNECTS TO THE ARCHIVE AND GOES THROUGH THE BUFFER PROCESS >>RIGHT CLICK THE SONG IN WINAMP PLAY LIST EDITOR AND SEND TO FORMAT CONVERTER (WAV FORMAT) AND IT WILL SAVE EACH SONG IN ITS OWN FOLDER. "VOILA" THATS HOW YOU SAVE TO HDD.

How do I download this amazing show? PLEASE HELP! The Dark Star is sensational!

As soon as the show started, I noticed the great stereo in this recording. And then the midi horns during Blown Away perked up my ears. Great job!

The second set is better then the first... only based on the superb song selection. The Dark Star really stalls out beautifully in a long gone quadrant of the sonic spectrum... cool beans. The last three tunes are really a fantastic set. I agree kinda odd, but they stand alone in a stirring sense of ONness. Gotta love Brent on We Bid you...

I stayed at my friend Dean's house in West Palm and for his hospitality I got him and his girl tickets to the second show and he and his girl didn't know what to think.........I, on the other hand, was excited from the opening Foolish Heart.....this show was absolute mastery........the Dark Star was beyond belief......I still remember the palm trees as I staggered out of the Miami Arena still stunned from the performance......

Were they dosed the gills that night? It wouldn't surprise me. This is 1969 and 1989 collapsed and swirling into one.

I thought I would spend today listening to shows from my birthday (10-26) and just got my mind melted down while listening to this totally sick ds>melt>drums.My dog even seemed to be on a full blown trip while this jammed(funny stuff...really)!It has been some time since I had a flashback moment but this one sure brings back the spirit of uncle john!Now if only I could find the first set......

I had a copy of this on tape in the early 90s but never could find it again. I was reunited this evening with the past, the wheel has turned as I found this medicine again.

This is my favorite "dark star" and a very good "wheel" by the dead at a show in miami in 1989. the not fade away is also good, hell its all damn good, this particular "blow away" was a favorite of mine during grad school.

Turn it up LOUD during blow away and then get ready to enter the transitive nightfall of diamonds during an incredible dark star.

This show means a lot to me personally, I listened to it almost every day during my 4 months in Holland - a period of self reflection and healing in 1993. I listened to this show during my 6 mile bike ride near the German border every morning and back home in the late evening after a visit to the shop.

bright blessings, may the Lord and Lady light your path

Captan

This is in response to JamminJerome's review.

An earlier, previous reviewer stated that the recording, remaster, or subsequent presentation of this fine Second Set, is not quite as good as the the First Set on the Archives, both DSBD's remastered by one Charlie Miller. That reviewer had an accurate appraisal. The sound is not as hot on this Second Set. Yet, it is still plenty wonderful enough, or, it is enough of wonderful ~ both sound and performance. An added plus is that there are none of the ticks and drop-outs of the First Set.

This recording has some inherent distortion which cuts the overall attack of the sound and tends to muffle the vocals. This is very prominently exhibited on Blow Away. You can hear the muffled sound which makes for a certain lack of spectral definition. I say it was inherent because it was a problem that Miller could not correct, or augment, and the signal wasn't bold enough to boost or try to color.

But hey, it still sounds great and the boys are playing very well. With that combination, how can we lose?

So, what should we I do? After the jam into Dark, Grab your volume control and turn it up REALLY LOUD, and voila! the distortion will not be so onerous. If you wanted to nitpick you could say that yes, the distortion was still there, but c'est la vie! This is a fabulous recording and a stellar remastering of an outstanding night in the lore of Grateful Dead concerts.

Can't imagine how anyone could consider this to be a "dark" Dark. All Darks are dark. They are also light, and colored, and grey, and black, and everything in between. It's like, with Dark Star there is no wrong note, or wrong sound, or wrong feel, or wrong or dark or clear, or cloudy. With Dark it all just comes and goes as it wishes, without compulsion. I don't know, maybe they had all learned at break that there weren't going to be "gift bags" waiting back for them in their 5-star hotel suites.

Geez. Get it, life is dark sometimes.

The spacey blackness of Dark brings about a vigorous drums and space>Jam>Wheel>Watchtower and thereby preps the listener's ears for the deliciously air blown filagree which is Stella ~ A masterpiece of sculptured pink and hazy cotton candy ~ spun and blown into a thousand aspects! And within each strand the prismatic spectrum; evidence of a sixth-dimensional existence.

NFA and Bid You Goodnight are rather anti-climactic after such a stunningly dazzling performance.

BTW, I have noticed you can't go wrong with a Charlie Miller.

Enjoy. Peace. Out.

p.s. I love you, JamminJerome.










But, I would only kindly suggest that you come down from off of Pluto, Mssr. Jammin.'

This show absolutely smokes. Awesome 'Dark Star' - just dripping with mindfuckery. Jerry's voice sounds a little ragged, but man, there's what? only six lines in the whole song?

5 stars? What? Okay, maybe you like the darker side of the dead, which comes out clear. Jerry sounds like a zombie, and this Dark Star is terrible. I tend to like fall 89, but this show is a clunker. The only bright spot to me was the closing "And We Bid You Goodnight," which was a pleasant surprise ending to an otherwise lackluster performance.

This was my first show! When my buddy & I arrived, they were charging to park in the lot so we pulled the white '71 camaro over to the railroad tracks. Some of the locals were trying to charge 5 bucks to park there but we weren't buying it. For some reason, we thought the rails weren't still used. Feeling crafty for parking for free, we headed for the drum circle under the banion tree. A couple doses later we were jamming away when we hear a really loud train whistle. About 30 seconds goes by & we hear it again but this time the engineer held it for a long time. This time people start cheering & looking towards the train. Then it hit me...THE CAR! I ran so fast & sure enough, the camaro was blocking the tracks & the engineer was going slow enough that he saw it & stopped. When I got there he had a big grin on his face & made some joke about scrap metal...This all happened on the first day. We showed up with no tix but had a little cash for 1 show each. At one point we were hanging around the box office when someone in the crowd mentioned they had a few surprise tix for sale(They were sold out if I remember correctly). We rushed up to the window & scored two tix for the next night...7th row on the floor!!! So the next night comes & I don't know what to expect seeing that I only knew two songs...Truckin & Fire. It was the craziest 3 hours of my life! My head is still whirling around that Dark Star! At one point, Micky & Billy were striking the ground with there sticks & It sounded like stars were exploding! I'm still trying to figure it out! After the show we went back home where I quit my job & have been on the road every since. I LOVE MY CRAZY LIFE!!! Thanks for the inspiration Jerry,Bobby,Phil,Brent,Billy,&Micky! & thanks Allen for turning me on to the madness!!! We had some great runs......indianrockman@yahoo

I was there, a very intense night
I really like the way the feedback and howling from Watchtower is all over this super sweet desolate Stella

I love this second set. Since I first got to lay ears on this show, everyone in the community agreed about the quality of the Dark Star. Easily the best jammed in to verse one of any modern version. Who could expect less of Miami Dead 89? The reason I'm writing this review is the STELLA. This has the most etheral, spiritual ending jam. True Grateful Dead at it's finest!!!!

... so I can download it and listen to it on my REAL stereo. This is hotness!! I don't know about scary; scary is seeing the red and blues behind you when you're driving; scary is having a gun pointed at you as I did one night in Chicago (by a robber, not a cop). But I can see how a real square who's lived a sheltered life could be really bothered by this music. It would have freaked my dad out. It freaks me out, but I LIKE getting freaked out this way! Some of the noise effects in the jam out of Dark Star made me scream with delight. Definitely up there with 7/12/90 and 9/20/90 and better than 12/31/90 - which is saying something.

If you want to take a journey into your psyche and see what associations lie in wait - fear not for the whole world is in this one Dark Star...tv static, racquetball courts, time-machines, medieval torture, insect communication, funeral horns of new orleans, buddhist scripture, worldbeat, witches incantations, ice-ages, wars, raga, muzak, volcanoes, black holes, peruvian indigenous sounds, crawling, creeping, gliding, seething ends, beginnings, and tight rope walking over some huge abyss.

10/9/89
10/26/89
7/12/90
9/20/90
4/1/91

I will always hold this show dear to me. This is the night that I truly found myself along with some of my dearest friends.

I have listend to Hours and Hours of Dead on this site and have never had the urge to write a review. Well this gave me the urge to sign up just to write a review.


This is off the hook. This is Dark powerful freak the dogs out slap your grandma kinda powerful music. The dark star is off the hook. Anyone who wants HARDCORE Grateful Dead look no further. I would love to talk to anyone who was at this show. Unreal

it seems as if the guys actually fully embody the "Grateful Dead" in this show. I kinda wish there was more edginess to some of their other shows. This All Along the Watchtower blows me away, and of course the Dark Star. And I agree, Jerry didnt tease this time, he put out

This is some of the heaviest darkest music the Dead ever performed. Not for the faint of heart. There is a great review of this show in the Compendium, but in sum, although the weirdness starts in set 1 with an evil Victim, when Healy starts shooting Weir's voice through the box during Estimated, it's on. Brent denies us a truly warped Blow Away rap ala 7/7/89 but the sickness and sonic destruction otherwise known as the last East Coast Dark Star of the 80s takes this show to a whole other place. The back side of the second set shows a band clearly spent by the activities as they limp through perfunctory versions of Stella and NFA. The Bid You Goodnight encore is somewhat curious in light of the darkness of the show.

A nice companion piece to the upbeat 10/16 NOD release. The recording is top notch, the show is just off the chain.

Highly Recommended

This is not the best show of '89...but I'm not here to 'boge' anybody's high either. It's just too bad that this source does not deliver the same stellar quality that you hear when listening to the first set...so four stars. Blow Away rivals 7/7... Most likely the best late model Dark Star played.

But I'm splitting hairs...this is some sick shiot!

I went to both of these shows. 5th row 1st night. Front row 2nd night. They were the shows that had power to be life changing. A true experience. If you were there, you know what I mean.

all the stuff dicks picks releases are puffballs. this is pull your hair out running screaming out the door music. every time i have to defend the dead aginst puffballness i give them this tape. they either tell me they 'rarely' played this good, as if to write it off, or they shake their head and say 'i never knew'... most nights jerry was the biggest tease in the world. i wasn't there but i know he spooged on the walls that nite. no teasing here, i'm just gonna screw you into tomorrow, and have you talk to your dead grandmother while i'm at it. only when branford marsalis played with them did i ever hear things get really out of hand like this. they should make a box set of all the branford/dead shows, i'd buy that shit so fast make your head spin. why isn't this miami show a dicks picks.... makes you wanna bang your head against a wall.

I was dosed outta my mind but to hear this 2nd set was a grateful treat.At the tail end of a killer Fall Tour this was the icing on the cake so to speak, this 2nd set was a monster, the Estimated to kick things off was a real surprise and the Dark Star was really DARK and scary!!!! this is an evil GD playing evil muisc which they were capable of doing from time to time. All I know is I wound up in Key West the next day still tripping my balls off and swiming with dolphins..ahhh those were the days!

Does anyone know where I can download set 1? The 2nd set is downright awesome!!!

in answer to brainbeats review, I was at both shows and during the late night news after the first, they did say that the show on the 26th was the Grateful Dead's 2000th show. It was an awesome show, an incredible Dark Star. A must own show for everyone.

This Dark Star has become my favourite Dark Star, alongside Cleveland 12-6-73 and Veneta 8-27-72. I haven't heard anything as intense and frightening anywhere, and I spent a lot of time listening to music. OUT OF THIS WORLD! A big thanks to everybody who made this collection on the Archive possible.

My third show.
I had to leave during space. I went to the bathroom to rinse my face in the sink and the water started crawling up the walls to the ceiling and back down to the floor. I knew a head who used to be a roadie for the dead and he pointed out Owsley to me - in crazy mask and with some mountain man type walking stick (he had on the 'owsley-dead-bronze' belt buckle that is infamous). There were quite a few costumes around it being near halloween.

Anyway this show was completely sick. This is what convinced me to tour as much as I could until I finally quit in Oct. '94. Download this now you wont regret it. I will never forget this show.
(PS - not confirmed but I beleive this is the 2000th dead show)[?]

I was at this show and it was extremely edgy. We watched many a pastel colored yuppie suck down frozen mixed drinks, oblivious to the seriousness of the first set. By the time Drums was hitting us, these poor folks were literally crawling up the aisles, covered in their own sick, trying to get out of the cauldron. A bizarre sight, but I am sure if had been partaking of anything psychoactive that night, I would have been right down there with them.

Gives new meaning to the phrase "killer show"!

Great show but agree the mix is a little harsh at points and have heard other shows musically which shine a bit more. That said a really nice stella - like many of the shows from this period gave you a whiff of greatness but relied more on gimmicks and novelty than genuine musical ingenuity as they did much more in years before.

At this show...legend has it a bunch of pranksters were as well...
The goofy cage match parking lot was hectic.
The aids warnings about hookers scrawled on the sidewalk all over had me daydreaming about death anyway...then the show.
Man...the night before had me dosed on shrooms, and I had eaten some bunk acid during this show....but the DARK STAR! We knew a full 2 minutes before Jerry played the triad....My buddy and I smoked up...and.....whew. Dark Star at long last! 15 minutes, then fifteen more of space...

It was like watching aliens land in your backyard....

sick.......just sick. What a performance. And great quality recording.

can't agree more. there is an undertow here that could have pulled the faint of heart out to sea. don't know, wasn't there. but bonk is right. the first time i heard this tape, my sister was turning me on, and she said, "i like it, but it's kinda scary." well, i'm all about that, when done well. talk about a diamond in the rough! THANKS TO ARCHIVE AND AIZEN!!!!!!!

THIS WAS THE SCARIEST SHOW I HAVE EVER SEEN THE DEAD PLAY.Every song in the first set is about death and destruction.Aside form the opener,"foolish",the Death theme was there.You could feel the boys sucking you in.You had no choice.I remember people franticly leaving.The dead were freaking people out.Even during the show when most people dont think too much about the set,I was well aware of what was going on.ALL I HAVE TO SAY IS THIS IS THE BEST SHOW OF 1989!!!!DOWNLOAD IT!!!!

Great show but the mix in the sound board recording is strong in the vocals and jerrys guitar is not that loud

This was definitely a great show. I can't believe no one has mentioned the amazing version of "blow away"!!! Brent sounded like a maniac at the end and was getting the crowd and himself PUMPED! The night before was my first dead show(please someone post it!!!!! LONG LIVE THE ARCHIVE!!!

When at the show, it was rumored to be their 2000th live performance for the band. It was another wild, south florida time near the arena. A crossover neighborhood, the lot was crazy and uncontained, bleeding into the show enough such that it was cops galore afterwards. But no bad reports, just lots of nitrous and closure for the pagan masses. Did anyone else go to the Rascal House once away from the show? Mmmm...matzoh ball soup at 1am was kryptonically satisfying.

That tone Garcia gets during Not Fade is just unreal. Some of the best MIDI-guitar I have ever heard. The rest of this show is tremendous, not just the monumental Dark Star. Tied with 9/18/87 for my favorite show of the late 80s.

BTW, ever since I found this wonderful website I have been a much happier camper at work ; ) Much Thanks!

I used to have this on tape. This Dark Star sounds like the inside of an electronic pinball machine. Very good Estimated Prophet also. If my memory serves me correctly, I think parts of this Dark Star made it onto Infrared Roses. Highly Recomended.

I first heard this Star back in 92 on the GDH when I was living in North Tonawanda, N.Y., I taped it at the time and must've listened to it hundreds of times. I haven't listened to it from here yet, but when I looked at the recent reviews I couldn't beleive my eyes. It is my fave Darkstar, along w/ the 69 stuff,It will bring back many memories, I'm sure. The MIDI was in full effect after verse 1, and Phil was waaaay low in his frequency, mustv'e been 10 Hz, easily. Anyway, thanks Archive for putting these ehows up and giving people like me an opportunity to voice our opinions, it's totally appreciated. I have cancer and music is a source of joy and inspiration, seeing how I can't get out of the house much. You guys are great, keep it up. -eric

Ever since those first few years went up on the archive I've been waiting for 89 just to listen to this Dark Star. This is really the shit: the perfect example of the Dead's later period style of playing put into perfect effect. Same x factor, but with an really dense sound. This music will freak out your house pets.